The Long Arm of Perception and Negative Publicity
By Jake Allen
As I noted earlier this week there has been a significant reduction in the coverage of private security in the mainstream media of late. This is most likely due to the fact that in the U.S. at least it’s all-hands-on-deck to cover the impending health care reform legislation. But, the lack of negative headlines can also be attributed in part to the general lack of incidents worthy of reporting as well. For that, everyone across the industry can take a piece of the credit. Well done.
An interesting story has developed recently outside of San Diego, California where a local college has decided to end their contract to utilize a local training facility owned by U.S. Training Center, formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide.
The college’s governing board voted unanimously to stop using the ‘Blackwater facility’ in direct response to public criticism, presumably of the facilities affiliation to Blackwater, now Xe. Local activists have protested at Southwestern College board meetings for months in an effort to halt the college’s arrangement with U.S. Training Center and it now appears that those efforts were successful in changing the minds of the governing board of directors.
Earlier this year Southwestern College had entered into an agreement which allowed U.S. Training Center to use rooms on their campus in exchange for time at the U.S. Training Center’s firearms ranges which are only a short distance away.
The question remains is the decision to cancel the agreement just politics and are the cadets of the police academy which Southwestern runs getting short shrift because of it? In other words what is best for the cadets who later go out into the world to enforce our laws?
I see this as a prime example of how a company’s brand is affected widely across sectors. Anyone in-the-know understands that Blackwater Worldwide’s international operations in support of the WPPS contract for the U.S. Department of State has nothing to do with their domestic firearms range businesses outside of their Moyock, North Carolina facility.
If a picture is worth a thousand words then an uninformed sound-byte must be worth ten-thousand in today’s culture. It’s a shame that the governing body has caved to political pressure instead of standing their ground on the merits of the original question and decision making processes which must have been: What facilities best prepare our cadets for a future in law enforcement? Unless a better location has magically materialized in recent months it now appears that cadets will receive inferior preparations all because the facility is ‘owned by’ Xe.
The lessons to be learned here for all PSCs is the importance of protecting your brand at all costs. What you do in one aspect of your business can easily negatively affect the public’s perception of you in other parts of your portfolio of services.
October 26th, 2009 at 2:35 PM
Hi Jake,
It would be a good day if the media decided to cover more important topics than PMCs but I doubt that would happen. I hope this is not the silence before the storm. But, also hats off to the PMCs for keeping their heads down.
The story on Blackwater losing a contract is rather disturbing. I say so because I know what it is like to be targeted in a very negative fashion by the media. The simple fact is that when that happens, you are doomed. The knock-on effect can cause immense damage.
Additionally, why do they (the media) not encourage similar actions if someone in a large government department does something they don’t like – how would it look if a government department was boycotted? Of course, that is unthinkable but it also points to a lot of double-standards in the media.
I accept that there may have been people in Blackwater who behaved despicably. However, there are people in the company who behave exemplary. The end result is that because of those few, an entire company is slated. The effect continues as political smears take hold and continue.
Rgds,
Eeben
October 26th, 2009 at 3:10 PM
Firstly, Eeben welcome back from your journey.
It’s true that Blackwater has created a shadow under which they themselves will struggle to get out from under. The name change and the org changes help as will time. However, there is one lady yet to sing and that is the impending trial of the Nisour Square shooters. So that is at least one rough patch of negative news which is certain to be encountered down the track.
This one contract with Southwestern College and a hundred more like it probably won’t significantly impact BW’s bottom line but for smaller companies with less infrastructure, connections and resources this should be an illustrative and cautionary tale of how bad news on one end of your business can affect revenues at the other end. Especially in today’s fast paced media saturated world.
October 28th, 2009 at 7:34 AM
You guys should check out the latest report from the US Army War College. It is called Bullets and Blogs and it is about the conclusions the military has come up with in regards to dealing with today’s media and new media realities. You could easily apply all the same lessons outlined in the report, to today’s PMCs and PSCs. They really examined the 2006 Lebanon war, and how Hezbollah used new media to great effect. I read through the thing, and I thought about the propaganda value of Nisour Square type incidents, and how that not only impacts the company, but the industry and the client. Why companies are not getting on board with this stuff is beyond me?
October 28th, 2009 at 7:58 AM
Matt, I’ve read it and it is a good effort. The military was foolish not to take a look at bloggers in the beginning because that is direct feedback which can either be discarded or incorporated but to not look at it is bad headwork.
as for pmc’s i think the case requires a bit more nuance. the vast majority of blogs and blog posts about pmcs are negative in the extreme and offer little or no learning value for pmcs. however, blogs like your and a few others provide an objective look at the realities and are not afraid to call something wrong when they see it.
our problem as an industry is that we have no leadership. meaning no structural leadership. the mil has the pentagon and all roads lead there eventually. Xe, TC, Dyncorp, MEP, USIS, EODT, (the list goes on and on) have no central ‘mother ship’ from which to take direction. it’s just every company for himself and let’s see how much money can be made before someone turns on the lights at this party. there is no incentive to work together for the greater good. no incentive to work together at all. in fact the incentive is the opposite. if i can make my money while spoiling your drinking water then so much the better as far as i am concerned.